With the fiasco that was week 7, I decided that it was finally time to get a better handle on this sub situation. So I decided to create another weekly post, this time dedicated specifically to arranging our rosters in preparation for our next matches.

Subbing is a first come, first serve deal. If all teams have all roster spots filled, we may choose to expand our rosters should there be enough players to accommodate. Meaning that if each team is full staff, but still four subs are looking to play, we may each choose one more player, and each team play with five players that week. We cannot exceed the roster limits until every team is able to do so, however. If every team is full except one, and there are two subs looking, only one of the two subs will be guaranteed to play, and the other will be left on standby in case someone can't make it last minute.

The format here is simple: All of our rosters will be posted here. Each player's known status will be listed next to their names. Players who are unable to play will be listed in RED. Players who have confirmed that they will be playing this week will have their game of choice listed in GREEN. Players who are unsure of their situation for the coming week will be shown in ORANGE, and all subs who are available to fill in for a team, but have not yet been placed with one will be in BLUE. Anybody who has not reported their availability to us will be left in BLACK. All players should report on this post to their availability each week, and use the comments here to arrange for subs. Any player can find their own sub, though captains will likely be using this the most.

And as always, if anyone has any suggestions on how to improve this post or any other element of our league, feel free to do so in a comment, or more privately by email. I am always open to suggestions and criticism, constructive or otherwise.

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GAMES OF THE WEEK

PS3: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

X360: Red Dead Redemption

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CROSSFIRE

PixieHixie -

Deathlysi -

footree -

Tikiholmes16 - Red Dead Redemption

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GRAVITY

MajesticMaverick - has to work

EgoAtlas -

sebasnowboards -

StormFuror -

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REALITY

paleselan -Red Dead Redemption

johnyg13nb - unsure if he will make it, Modern Warfare 2 if he does

QwertyMusicMan -

RicoTheBloodEdge -

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BOSTON TEABAGS

DOJNDO - Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Bugsy326 - out for season

Eagle - out

Siphen.0 - does not have either game

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SUBS

cusmar350 - playing for Gravity in Red Dead Redemption

davros1996 - reserved by Reality for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

E-Diddy -

hypernova1024 -

InfamousABO -doesn't have either game

jiggykyftw -

KErlend -

Kevin.Ke - unavailable

majorjam - playing for Boston Teabags in Red Dead Redemption

MarvelHasBestComics - does not have either game

MonkeyMadman -

Ronin - playing for Reality in Red Dead Redemption

TMARama - does not have either game

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As always, we will still accept signups for subs if anyone is interested in joining us in any given week. To sign up, simply send your gamertag/PSN ID to the email address you see in the header space, along with your location (country/time zone), age, and the first console that got you into gaming. If you are signing up, I would suggest you also comment here letting us know, that way captains can begin making arrangements even before I update the post to include you.

This is the official signup post for ULG pickups held this Saturday, August 4th. To sign up, please leave the relevant gamertag to the system you'll be playing on, the game you are wanting to play, and your location (country & time zone). There is a simple format to copy/paste below, if you'd like. Pickups are drop-in/drop-out in nature, and could run all day long if people stuck around long enough to do that. To help encourage people to build the group, please leave a range of time you estimate you will be online for the game. This is not required and you won't be held to it, but it should help people coordinate when they know when to expect other people to be on.

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If there's something you want to play with your fellow IGNers, or a general challenge you'd like to issue, feel free to do so. Please anyone who signs up for a particular game this week do so in direct reply to the person who initially suggested the game, to avoid any confusion as we try to get this set up. Please check out wildguy3922's Official MyIGn Multi-Player Roster to see what games your fellow IGNers own as you decide to make a challenge or offer a game.

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You are allowed to sign up for multiple games. With so many different titles in action all day long, it's understandable that you may grow bored and want to change it up a bit. Feel free. And feel free to join a game you haven't signed up for, so long as you know someone who can get you in. This signup sheet is more of a guide to help everyone coordinate, not a set of rules by any means.

Also, if you are capable and willing to record these pickup games, please let me know so we can help you get these uploaded on our official YouTube account.

Things got hectic this week, so I decided to get everything in order, and to prepare everyone for how I expect to handle this blog as we move forward, at least for now. Below you'll find my weekly schedule. This includes the posts and events relates to the ULG. As you can see, I've made myself quite busy.

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Sunday: Season 01 match: week 08 is coming up, so we still have a month's worth of weekly matches to go.

Yesterday I announced that PS3 gamers would be able to participate in a race to gain a Platinum trophy in the upcoming patch for Metal Gear Solid 4. Well today, I share some of the love with Xbox 360 players. But I can't just cut and paste the same type of event, because no Xbox 360 game is getting a patch like MGS4. So instead, I'd like to introduce another unique event for Unprofessional League Gaming.

Since PS3 gamers will be competing in a solo event, so too will X360 players. This event is called a Score-off, and it's very old-school in nature. We'll be using a game from the Arcade genre. Players will fight to obtain the highest possible score over a period of three weeks. Each week there will be current standings reported, and the player with the highest score at the end of the tournament will win a mystery prize box!

To ensure the ease of entry in this competition, I chose a game that is older, familiar, and that every Xbox 360 owner should already have. And if they don't, well this is your chance to fix that mistake. I'm talking of course about the greatest game from the Xbox360's launch, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved.

Since I don't have an Xbox 360, I will need some help to coordinate winners, and I will take a volunteer for that. Basically, their responsibility will be to make sure everyone in the tournament is friends with them, and to report their scores to me as the tournament progresses. But for everyone else who is interested in participating in this tournament, all we need is your Gamertag and location (country/time zone).

Now, the issue here is of course with past high scores, to which I say we will have your previous high scores reported before we begin the tournament, so we will know to avoid that confusion. Regardless of if you can beat your old high scores or not, please report all of your scores obtained in our time frame to our scorekeeper via XBL. Those who cheat and lie about their scores will be disqualified; we do have ways to verify that sort of thing. So just don't do it. This tournament is about fun, friendly competition, so let's treat it that way.

Hello players. I would like to announce an exciting event for the ULG; the first of its kind. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is finally getting trophies patched into the game, and the ULG will celebrate by hosting a competition. This is, as the name implies, a race to the Platinum. We will accept as many people who will choose to sign up, and the contest will start from the moment the trophy patch is released. The first person who has signed up that obtains the platinum trophy for Metal Gear Solid 4 wins!

Winning this event will gain you a place of honor in our records, but will also gain you a very special prize: a package of mystery goodies! What exactly is in the box? You'll just have to win to find out. Or hope the winner is nice enough to post about it.

To ensure that no one fakes their way to victory, everyone will need to friend me, DOJNDO, on the PSN and send me a message as soon as you obtain the platinum letting me know that you have done it so I can quickly verify. Simple, no?

To sign up, please give me your PSN name and country of residence. I won't ask for a full address from anyone but the winner, but I do want to prepare myself for the worst possible shipping costs, so country would be helpful (or state if you are in the US). Anyone who has already signed up for the Season and given me their profile info does not need to give me anything I already have, just let me know that you're interested. Since I expect it to take multiple plays to platinum such a deep game (I assume your animal ratings at the end of each playthru will be involved somehow), I anticipate this going on long enough to give updates every few days, so you can see who's in the lead and who's lagging behind.

If anyone is capable of video recording, and wants to submit a video of highlights of their trophy gains, then let me know and I will help you upload the video on our official YouTube Channel. Please though, leave it to be the moments you get the trophies; don't just give me a video of the game being played from start to finish.

We do not know when exactly this trophy patch is coming at this time, but I will update everyone when the news breaks.

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For the future, I plan on doing more of these for high profile releases, preferably ones I know will not have multiplayer trophies. The league tends to support less expensive games over newer, more costly titles, but the nature of this sort of competition requires a guarantee of a fresh slate for all players. Which means it must happen as the trophies, and in most cases the game itself, first becomes available.

I will also be opening an official forum for anyone to issue a challenge for any upcoming release. I'm working out the kinks on that idea, but basically the idea is that I'll give you a template, and you can run your own events with the League's support and sponsorship. We're all about connecting people through healthy competition, so it's only natural to encourage the players take the reigns every now and again.